Google Base to Influence Google Search Results

Google Base has been called the Index of all indices, a reference to the concept that Google is preparing to merge and present information from any variety of sources. According to Google, it is simply another way to get information into the Google search database, especially useful for submitters who don’t maintain their own websites. In practical terms, Google Base appears to be a way to submit a list of virtually anything from free information to expensive items. In short, Google Base seems designed to cover all bases. “Changes Blur the Scenery Along the Digital Divide”, Nov 16, 2005

Google Base is one of the least understood search tools to emerge from the Googleplex in the company’s eight year history. Though very few people in the search marketing industry claim to fully understand what Google Base is or what Google’s long-term intentions are, everyone appears to agree it is going to be an important component in Google’s future development.

Search marketers have been recommending clients establish Google Base accounts for almost a year now. Virtually any information can be uploaded to Google Base, including services, products, art, poetry, essays, used cars and kitchen sinks. How that information is used to inform or create search results has, for the most part, remained a mystery to search marketers.

The first thing to keep in mind is that Google Base is an unfinished product. It has been online and accepting information since its introduction in late October 2005. While it is functionally “ready for primetime”, until recently Google has not appeared to have fully developed plans for its deployment.

Anyone with a Google membership can add products, services or other information to it. Several articles have been written describing its interface and how to add information to its database. Over the past year, some search marketers in the United States have reported seeing listings and references from Google Base periodically appearing alongside general search results on Google, especially during real estate, automotive and accommodation searches.

The second thing to remember about Google Base is that it is essentially a secondary search database. Google does not have a spider traveling the web searching for items to include in it but relies on webmasters and online businesses to feed material to it themselves. Google then spiders the Google Base database to find relevant items to include in its general or local results.

Because listings in the database are housed on Google’s servers as opposed to independent domains, optimization of product listings comes in the form of attribute tags coded into the data fed to Google Base. These attributes are a cross between old fashion meta tags and social media type tags.

Earlier this week, Google announced it was going to integrate results from Google Base into searches conducted on its general search engine, just in time for the holiday season. Starting this week, certain search queries in the United States will produce results that include a “Refine Your Search” box. This secondary search box will include drop down menus into which the searcher can enter or select options ranging from product type, price, skill level or service type.

The third thing, or set of things, to keep in mind about Google Base is that Google has a whole host of products and features that can be easily integrated with each other.

Take Local Search and Google Maps as an example. We already know that Google Base is actively associated with local search because of the real estate, tourism and automotive results extracted from Google Base seen on searches conducted in the US.

Another is Google Checkout, a recently released product that acts as an online wallet for Google members going shopping. While Google Checkout is only available for use with specific merchants, its expansion and inclusion with local results culled from Google Base listings could pose a serious challenge to eBay, Amazon and Craigslists.

The deployment of the “Refine Your Search” box was one of three recent events detailing fuller integration of Google Base listings into general and local search results.

The second came late last week in a MarketWatch story that suggested Google intended to repurpose its vertical shopping search engine, Froogle as a searchable database instead of a stand-alone site. Data from Froogle would be made available through other Google search services, eventually leading to its phase-out. Google’s recent removal of the link to Froogle from the tabs above its searchbox, lends credence to this theory. While Google officially denied the death of Froogle in an email exchange with John Battelle on Monday, the writing has been on the wall for a while.

The third event happened two weeks ago with the announcement of the deal between Google and Intuit. As part of the deal, Intuit makes The QuickBooks Product Listing Service available to its users. The service is designed to guide users through the creation of Google Base listings for each product listed in their inventory, thus placing their products on Google’s spiderable database, independent of their own websites.

Today is Google’s unofficial eighth birthday. If you look very closely at today’s Google Logo design by Dennis Hwang, you might notice something interesting about the candles on Google’s birthday cupcake. The first thing most notice is the Roman numeral VIII or eight. Take a closer look, read the last sentence Hwang wrote in his three-sentence blog post and assume the cherry is placed where it is for a good reason. Now what do you see? Though it might be my imagination, I see v.III , or Google version 3.